


Spin the Bottle

by magneticdice



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-13
Updated: 2014-02-13
Packaged: 2018-01-12 06:33:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1183013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magneticdice/pseuds/magneticdice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Karen's birthday and Lip takes Ian with him to her party. (AU, and everyone is a lot younger than when the show began.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spin the Bottle

**Author's Note:**

> Birthday gift for Amanda (teamwinchesterbros on tumblr)

**Spin the Bottle**   


Ian was eleven and still in elementary school when his brother took him to Karen Jackson's birthday party. Ian never considered himself to be popular, but he knew his brother was. Everyone wanted to be friends with Lip Gallagher, because if you were close with Lip, you would know all the answers to the pop quiz, have the best essay possible and be able to get away with barely ever going to class.

It was Ian's first middle school party, and he didn't know anyone there. Karen's mom had cooked a ton of food, and once her husband left the house, kept offering everyone beer. It was very weird, to say the least.

Ian tried his best to stay beside Lip the whole time, but that became difficult when Karen dragged her brother away to talk to some of her friends. Ian grabbed a can of Pepsi from the cooler full of soda cans and ice, popping it open and going to sit on the plastic-covered sofa.

He wasn't sure how much time passed with him just sitting there, alone and bored out of his mind. He was grateful that Lip had brought him along, but it still sucked not knowing anyone else there.

“Do you go to school with Karen?”

Ian looked around, startled, and noticed the short girl with wavy, brown hair sitting in the armchair across from him. She had a half-empty bottle of beer in one hand and was twirling her hair with the other.

Ian shook his head. “My brother does,” he answered, and pointed at Lip, who was telling a story to a bunch of people on the stairs. The girl turned her head in the direction Ian had indicated and muttered something about attention whores. Ian couldn't help but laugh.

“Do you? Go to school with Karen, I mean,” he clarified.

“Nah, my brother Mickey's in her class. I'm Mandy,” she said, flashing him a smile.

“Ian.”

Mandy got up and came to sit on the couch right beside Ian, the plastic making squeaking sounds as it shifted under her weight. They didn't say anything else—just sat in awkward silence and watched the older kids talk and have fun.

Karen somehow convinced her mom to go upstairs halfway through the party, and that was when things really started. Lip pulled a bag full of joints out of his pocket and passed them out. “Think of it as a birthday gift,” he said to Karen. Ian knew his brother had a thing for the blonde—he'd liked her ever since elementary school—but hadn't made a move yet.

“Right! So now that the real party has started, we should play spin the bottle!” Karen said happily, flashing a smile at Lip. Ian was grossed out by her shameless flirting.

“ _Ugh,_ kill me now,” Mandy whispered, and Ian had to cover his mouth to hide the laugh that threatened to burst through.

“You done with this?” Karen said, grabbing Mandy's beer out of her hand. Mandy didn't even have a chance to answer; the blonde chugged down what was left of the alcohol and put the glass bottle onto the coffee table in the center of the living room. “Come on everyone!”

The group of fifteen or so kids came to sit in a makeshift circle around the bottle. “Scooch over, bro,” Lip said to Ian. He sat on the long sofa Ian was sharing with Mandy and patted the space between them for Karen to come join. Ian was squished between Karen and Mandy, and looked at the dark-haired girl apologetically. She gave him an understanding smile.

“Who's first?” someone asked.

“Karen's the birthday girl. She should get to have the honor,” Lip announced.

Karen flashed Lip another smile and spun the bottle around. Everyone seemed to lean forward and watch the glass as it rotated around and around until it finally came to a stop aimed at Peter Finkleman. The pudgy, brown-haired boy moved forward and eagerly puckered his lips, waiting for Karen to kiss him back, which she did without hesitation. Then it was his turn to spin.

Ian watched the older kids spinning the bottle, turn after turn, but couldn't fight the fear that had crept into him. He hadn't kissed anyone before—like, ever. He anxiously studied the faces of everyone sitting in the room, wondering who his first kiss would be.

Jenna Novaro was up next and her bottle was aimed at Lip when it stopped spinning. They both moved forward and had a sloppy kiss right over the coffee table. Lip actually had to wipe the excess saliva of of his face with his shirt sleeve when they were done, but at least he turned around and tried to be slick about it. Now it was his turn. He spun.

The brown, glass-bottle seemed to rotate forever, but it finally began to slow down. It came to a stop pointing directly at the pale, dark-haired boy who was still smoking one of the joints Lip had passed out earlier. Apparently he'd kept it for himself. Ian recognized the boy from the neighborhood. He turned his head to the side and whispered to Mandy, “Mickey Milkovich is your brother?”

She nodded.

He looked back at Mickey and watched as the older boy exhaled the smoke he'd been holding in. “Don't fuckin' look at me like that, Gallagher,” he said to Lip. “I ain't a fuckin' faggot.”

Ian felt a sudden drop in his chest, but couldn't explain it. Being from the South Side, he was used to hearing the familiar anti-gay comments on a regular basis. He didn't know why Mickey's words had caused such a reaction in him.

Lip chuckled and raised his hands up. “Easy, Mickey. I'll just spin it again. We can add that it needs to be a guy and a girl to the rules. Actually, it's weird that this didn't happen sooner. I mean, given the ratio of guys to girls, the odds are that—”

“Oh shut up with the math bullshit, Gallagher,” Peter Finkleman said. “Just spin already.”

Lip obliged, and the bottle stopped on Karen. Both of them looked at each other with big grins and they were making out on the couch before anyone could catch up to what had just happened. Ian shifted away from the two, wishing he'd chosen a different spot. An arm his his face—he wasn't sure whose—and he had to say something.

“ _Seriously?_ ” Ian tossing a throw pillow at his brother's head. It worked, snapping his brother out of whatever had taken him over.

Karen looked around the room with a huge smile on her face before spinning the bottle again. It landed on Mandy. Karen leaned forward to spin the bottle again when Lip put a hand on her shoulder and held her back. He gave her a wink and she twisted her body, leaned over Ian to give Mandy a surprise kiss on the lips. Ian was horrified but Mandy recovered quickly, only blushing when all the other boys in the circle started cheering—all except Mickey, of course, who shot a glare at Lip.

“Guess it's my turn now,” Mandy said, and reached for the coffee table to give the bottle a whirl. Ian watched it spin and slowly come to rest, pointing at him. He swallowed to calm his nerves and clear the guilty feeling in his chest, but closed his eyes anyway and waited for the kiss... his first kiss, which would now be written in history as being with a _girl._

Mandy pressed her lips against his and pulled back quickly. It was over before he knew it—harmless and insignificant. He sighed, wondering what he'd been so worked up about. He looked at Mandy and noticed that she looked so _happy,_ so he gave her a small smile.

“It's your turn now, bro,” Lip said, patting a congratulatory hand on Ian's back. Ian halfheartedly spun the bottle and waited to see who he'd have to kiss next. It pointed to Mickey, and Ian's heart jumped. The redhead looked up in horror, just realizing that he'd kissed the boy's sister not two seconds ago, but instead of seeing malice on Mickey's face, he saw something else there. Mickey was biting the corner of his lower lip, teeth making a white line on his skin where they cut into flesh, eyes darting from side to side, looking anywhere but directly at Ian.

Ian didn't get a chance to spin again because Karen's dad chose _that_ moment to get home. “Karen, I brought some cookies...” His voiced trailed away as Mr. Jackson walked in took in the scene in front of him. Ian saw Mickey quickly stub out the joint on the leg of the coffee table and pocket what was left of it.

“Daddy, hi! We're just—”

“Where the heck is your crazy mother?” Mr. Jackson shouted at Karen. “Sheila! What kind of supervision is this?”

Karen's mom appeared at the top of the stairs, dressed in her nightgown. “Oh, hi Eddie!” came Sheila's reply. She took a few steps down and continued, “I was just giving the kids some space before the cake. It's a Baumkuchen, which is German for 'tree cake' because of the way its layers look like tree rings when it's sliced.”

Karen's dad rolled his eyes and turned to look back at the kids. All evidence of un-Christian behavior had disappeared—beer cans and spliffs were hidden and someone had even managed to get rid of the bottle on the table.

Mr. Jackson raised his eyebrows but Karen just smiled up at him. “You got me birthday cookies, Daddy?” she said in a sickeningly sweet voice. Apparently it worked because her dad nodded and gave her a hug.

The party resumed, but was a lot more boring after that. It was hard work though: every time he turned around, Mandy was there, trying to talk to him. Finally he pretended to not feel good and told Lip he was going to head home. He left the party feeling like a complete idiot. It wasn't even that dark out yet.

He'd only walked a few blocks when someone pushed him up against one of the concrete pillars that supported the train above them. Ian covered his head with his hands to prevent any damage to his face the mugger.

“I don't have any money!” he said helplessly.

He didn't expect to hear a laugh in response to his pitiful yet truthful claim. He felt the pressure pushing him into the pillar ease and he opened his eyes to see Mickey Milkovich standing there.

“What the fuck?” Ian muttered, straightening his shirt.

Mickey shrugged his shoulders and reached into his pocket to pull out the half-finished joint he'd saved from earlier. He lit it and took a hit before holding it out to Ian. The redhead hesitated, still not sure what was going on, but eventually reached his hand out to take the offered weed.

Ian coughed as he took a deep inhale from the joint and tried to hold the remaining smoke in his lungs as long as he could before exhaling. When he offered it back to Mickey, the older boy accepted it with what Ian could have sworn was a small smile.

“Did the party finish early?”

Mickey shook his head slightly as he took another puff. “Nah, but I can't stand that skank and her fuckin' dad. Wasn't gonna waste any more time there now that the booze are gone,” he explained.

Ian couldn't help but laugh at Mickey's honesty. “But Mandy stayed?” he wondered.

“She thought you were gonna come back,” Mickey said. “I think she has a thing for you.”

The joint was almost done but he passed what was left to Ian anyway, watching the redhead intently.

“Well you don't have anything to worry about,” Ian said quickly. “She's not my type... I'm not going to hurt her or anything.” He still didn't know what Mickey was doing there, but could guess that it had something to do with Mickey protecting his little sister.

Ian saw Mickey bite his lip again in that way that sent all of his blood south and looked away before the brunette could catch him staring. All he needed was a Milkovich to figure him out and make his life in their neighborhood a living hell...

Weed finished, Ian tossed the roach to the ground, not knowing what to do next.

“I... um. I'm gonna go home,” he said. The brunette nodded, and Ian resumed walking in the direction he'd been headed before Mickey had scared the living shit out of him.

“Hey, Gallagher!” Mickey called from a few steps behind him. Ian stopped and turned around, but was met with warm lips on his, giving him a soft but firm kiss. His eyes widened and threatened to pop out as he realized what was happening.

Mickey broke contact first and looked around quickly to make sure no one was there to see them. Ian's lips felt a sudden coldness where Mickey's had been on them just moments ago.

“What... what was that for?” was all Ian could stammer out.

“Well, your bottle was pointed at me, right? It's the rules,” he answered, rubbing at his bottom lip with the back of his thumb.

Ian nodded, grinning like an idiot; he was still in shock.

“You breathe a word of this to anyone and I'll fucking _kill_ you, ya hear?”

Ian stuck his tongue out tentatively and licked his lips in an attempt to taste any hint of Mickey that was left there. “A word of what? I don't know _what_ you're talking about,” he told Mickey with a smile.

The brunette smiled back.


End file.
